Hold Your Horses

Having spent the first year of the war patrolling the Mexican border, by 1943 1st Cavalry Division was alerted for overseas duty in February with all of their normal equipment-submachine guns, carbines, a Colt .45 for each trooper, and other gear-except horses. After staging in New Guinea for its first …

1944-03-03

AP175

Having spent the first year of the war patrolling the Mexican border, by 1943 1st Cavalry Division was alerted for overseas duty in February with all of their normal equipment-submachine guns, carbines, a Colt .45 for each trooper, and other gear-except horses. After staging in New Guinea for its first combat action, Brewer Task Force was officially constituted on 26 February under the command of General Innis P. Swift. Moving out on 29 February to begin its "island hop" through the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands, elements of Brewer Task Force landed on the island of Los Negros in an operation that was personally directed by General MacArthur and called a "reconnaissance in force." At Hyane Harbor they took the Japanese Army by surprise and the first objective-Momote airdrome-was secured by dusk. Resistance was initially light but by the third night Colonel Yoshio Ezaki, the Commander of the Admiralty Islands garrison, had assembled enough troops from the various units to make a strong attack on the airdrome.

Los Negros Island, New Guinea

The Admiralty Islands Campaign (Operation Brewer) was a series of battles in the New Guinea campaign of World War II in which the United States Army's 1st Cavalry Division took the Japanese-held Admiralty Islands. Acting on reports from airmen that there were no signs of enemy activity and the islands might have been evacuated, General Douglas MacArthur accelerated his timetable for capturing the Admiralties and ordered an immediate reconnaissance in force. The campaign began on 29 February 1944 when a force landed on Los Negros, the third-largest island in the group. By using a small, isolated beach where the Japanese had not anticipated an assault, the force achieved tactical surprise, but the islands proved to be far from unoccupied. A furious battle over the islands ensued.

American

Japanese

Scenario Type = Standard